Obamaweek: You know who’d make a great Pope?

posted at 11:00 am on July 12, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

It seems as Barack Obama’s polling numbers increasingly come down to Earth, his media apologists get more desperate to hail him as the secular Messiah. Perhaps no effort gets quite so embarrassingly sycophantic as Newsweek’s decision to print this mash note from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend on the occasion of Obama’s first visit with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican this week. Townsend argues that Obama is literally more Catholic than the Pope. Here are Newsweek’s alpha and omega:

In truth, though, Obama’s pragmatic approach to divisive policy (his notion that we should acknowledge the good faith underlying opposing viewpoints) and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more closely than those vocal bishops and pro-life activists. When Obama meets the pope tomorrow, they’ll politely disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality, but Catholics back home won’t care, because they know Obama’s on their side. In fact, Obama’s agenda is closer to their views than even the pope’s. …

Notre Dame awarded the president an honorary degree because it saw the need to highlight the best of Catholic teaching as applied to politics: the ability to open the eyes of those who would prefer to keep them closed, and to open the hearts of those who would prefer not to know the pain that their actions cause. The pope has a lot to learn about Catholic politics in America. Barack Obama can teach him.

In between these two paragraphs, Townsend fills the pages with the usual liberal complaints about the church, including gay rights, abortion, and — this is the best part — a complaint that the church hierarchy doesn’t listen to the congregations and change religious doctrine to match public opinion. She lauds Obama for his ability to “listen” to other points of view, apparently missing the months-long repetition that no one had an alternative to Porkulus when Republicans and Democrats both tried to get votes for smaller and more intelligently-crafted alternatives.

Townsend makes the same mistake about religion that many other Catholics (and not just Catholics) make about it. A church isn’t a democracy, nor is it a nation. The Catholic Church serves what its sees as eternal truths about God, Jesus Christ, and the world, and invites those who believe similarly to join. No one is forced to remain a Catholic anywhere in the world, nor are Lutherans, Episcopalians, and so on. Certainly one can disagree on policy and practices, as many Catholics do, but on doctrine, the church does not take polls.

Thus, one can agree on the doctrine of social justice but disagree on the best policies to achieve it. One can agree on the dignity of human life and still disagree on issues like incarceration, executions (which, contrary to popular belief, is not proscribed by Catholic doctrine), charity for the poor, and the economic policies of free nations. But someone who believes that infants born during botched abortions should not be protected by a law requiring the abortionists to seek independent medical help for them is acting contrary to Catholic doctrine, which is and should be immutable.

At least Obama doesn’t claim to be Catholic, even if Townsend thinks he’s more Catholic than Benedict. Townsend wants a church that bends to the will of the mob, which isn’t a church at all but a social club or a political party. Let Obama remain the head of his political party, and perhaps Catholics like Townsend should pay more attention to the church’s teachings — or find a social club to join instead.

Let her leave Holy Mother Church and establish her own Church of Obama. She can establish him as head of the church (like Church of England has the monarch). She could even set herself up as a Cardinal or Bishop or some such like a lot of the characters who run the break-away protestant denominations do. Be sure, Katy, to wear the clerical collar (Madalyn Murray O’Hare did at times).

A Kennedy lecturing anyone on what direction the Catholic Church should take is about as silly as Jeffrey Dahmer selling DVD’s containing healthy diet advice. Let me guess, does this Kennedy nitwit believe it isn’t a sin to murder a young woman by drowning?

the Kennedys would like some acknowledgment that they are the Catholic Hierarchy in the US and that as such they don’t need some foreigner in Rome telling US Catholics what to do. Kennedy-Townsend should soon be busy organizing pilgrimages to Cape Cod to put Morning After Pills, Condoms and such at the Shrine of Our Lady of Hyannis Port. I think I’m seeing what’s at work on this Kennedy Curse stuff, the whole damn clan sold their soul to old Scratch for gold and power and buck teeth.

I’m not even all that religious and I was feeling slighted. I wonder what Townsend would say if the Catholic congregations decided that instead of some social justice pap, they would rather have a devoutly religious community instead with all that could entail?

She probably attends a church where the priest is driving around in a Cadillac and living in a 10,000 square foot home, telling elitists like the Kennedy’s that whatever they want to do is condoned by the church.

Townsend wants a church that bends to the will of the mob, which isn’t a church at all but a social club or a political party. Let Obama remain the head of his political party, and perhaps Catholics like Townsend should pay more attention to the church’s teachings — or find a social club to join instead.

From here on out newsweek will only be used by me as (1) a poor substitute for toilet paper or (2) to line my chicken roost.

I still don’t understand how any Catholic or Christain could vote for obama. He went WAY BEYOND abortion with his advocacy of the practice of leaving newborn babies to die of dehyrdation, exposure and starvation. If I let a freaking trapped skunk die that way, the SPCA would be filing charges against me faster than you can say “jugears let babies die”

My son and I had the good fortune to be present at the Papal Address a couple of weeks ago. We were the in the second row as Pope Benedict drove by through the crowd. In terms of leadership and morality, comparing obozo to the pope is like comparing a McDonalds to the Great Pyramids (lousy analogy I know).

As far as the “Obama is more Catholic than the Pope” crap, that reminds me of some people who claim, when their dog is lapping toilet water, that the water in the bowl is cleaner than tap water.

I guess the Rum Runner, gangster, mentality and morality of old Joe Kennedy has seeped through to his offspring.

I still don’t understand how any Catholic or Christain could vote for obama.
bullseye on July 12, 2009 at 11:40 AM
It is the Pelosi’s Kerry’s Kennedy’s and Father Phleigers of the world that undermine and add legitamacy to the wayward Catholics. We are fortunate that Christ is the merciful One.

The pope has a lot to learn about Catholic politics in America. Barack Obama can teach him.

This is, without question, the single most inane, most idiotic, most narcissistic, most intelligence-insulting, most desperately grasping at straws while uttering the last gasp statement ever penned by a supposed seasoned journalist. If I were a Catholic, I would be in an absolute pure rage by this time, while flooding Newsweek with letters demanding this idiot Kathleen Kennedy Townsend resign immediately or be fired without the right to an appeal.

Is it any wonder that Newsweek’s subscription rate has plunged to the level that makes one wonder if the magazine is now committing an environmental crime by wasting trees to get the paper to publish their buffoonish bilge?

This article deserves every negative adjective in the dictionary, however, I want these fools to keep on writing this garbage. Fashioning this president into a higher being with superior powers unknown and never ever witnessed by mankind is a surefire guarantee that the public will try to bring him down several notches. Our society hates those that elevate themselves and if these writers can contribute to the growing dissatisfaction and ultimate demise of the freak-in-chief, I say keep typing.

This article sounds the most fundamental flaw in progessivism. They are constantly changing their moral compass to vindicate what ever idea is currently is in vogue. They do not recogize that there are certain moral, ethical and religious truths that have stood the test of time and are immutable.

The sad fact is that this government will be gone in a hundred years whatever it does to our nation, but the truths that God has given us stand the test of time. They will still be there.

This article sounds the most fundamental flaw in progressivism. They are constantly changing their moral compass to vindicate what ever idea is currently is in vogue. They do not recognize that there are certain moral, ethical and religious truths that have stood the test of time and are immutable

Can you imagine what would have happened if sea mariners hadn’t a fixed star in the sky in which to steer by?
This is the very point bu which the progressives want to take us…..into a universe where basics natural laws are forever changing.

I just got back from Mass, and in reading this, my head just exploded. Now I leave it to my animated torso to finish this post….

Seriously, WTF? Two hours ago, we renewed our faith in a baptism at Mass, and nowhere do I remember saying anything close to “Do you believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Holy Catholic Gallup Polling agency, the Global Catholic Social Consensus on Church Beliefs, and the SEIU?”

(The last bit there is a funny! Funny torso, ha ha!)

The Vatican II Church certainly involves the laity more, but the laity do not make Church policy. They fulfill Jesus’ work on Earth. By the way, I don’t recall Jesus saying, “It’s ok to kill little babies so long as you spend a few weekends at Habitat for Humanity.”

The Pope is one who supports charity, is humble, and is concerned about the plight of the poor and supports life.

To date Obama has targeted the Catholic Church by reducing the amount given to charities by those who make over $250,000 per year. If there is any evidence of Obama being humble, somebody needs to find it, and make him watch it! Being humble for Obama is like garlic to Dracula. The plight of the poor is not a big deal to Obama because he removed of taxable deductions in giving to charities, and he is destroying the economy, therefore producing devastating impacts on many a charity. He is also adding to the number of the poor by that 9.5% and rising unemployment rate. All of this overlooked by Townsend.

But the most glaring aspect of asserting Obama would be a good Pope, or even remotely Catholic like is his stance on Infanticide, and his signing back into action the United States paying for abortions worldwide. The country was facing tremendous financial troubles in every arena, and Obama, upon being inaugurated, he promptly signs an Executive Order regarding the funding of abortion? Somehow I do NOT see the Pope focusing in on denying life as a priority if HE was PRESIDENT.

Pay attention to how he immediately links Buchenwald to the the church above the slave room. What sort of ideology is at play here? That is some transition there. To me he tried to suggest that the Church as a whole ignored the evils of slavery, and to date is still supporting slavery. Guess he never reflected back on “history”, and ever noticed the works of William Wilberforce. I also wonder if anyone else thought these comments were odd considering he had just not 24 hours past met the Pope? I mean there seemed to be a resurrecting of sorts of the angst between Jews, and Catholics over whether, or not Catholics did enough to help Jews during WWII. He kept pounding the historical drum, but it sounded more like a history one Reverend Wright spoke of regarding slavery, and not an American history who tried to make things right, and has since the days of the Civil War strived to protect liberty for all men and women. Hello Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, former Soviet block countries, etc. Was he not just in Russia? You know Cold War and all that? Oh right, he does not think America played the largest role in bringing down the U.S.S.R.! Man I have got to quit reading any “history” books!

But I forgot we now support dictators like Chavez, Zelaya, Putin, Mahmoud, and the Castro brothers. How silly of me! My how our history has changed! We go from supporting the Pope in protecting life, to destroying it, and from trying to be better Christians in caring for the least of these, to being robbed at gunpoint by the federal government therefore limiting our abilities to care for our own much less the poor.

Townsend and Newsweek, along with the media as a whole, had better watch their dances with the Devil. There is a commandment in “The Ten Commandments” which indicates there should be no other gods before God. Deifying Obama is indeed worthy of a ring of Hell in Dante’s “Inferno”, and also God’s literal Hell.

I don’t blame this liberal writer at all for an article like this. After all liberalism is HER theology.
I blame the Pope & the Catholic Church for this article.
If they excommunicated the Kennedys along with any other pro-abortion Catholic decades ago, and reigned in 50 years of liberal priests spouting their social justice crap, there wouldn’t be a pro baby killing writing an ignorant article like this, and the Catholic Church would of been in better shape today.

Oh, Townsend, Kennedy-Townsend, Caroline, or whatever?….. I take my Catholic dogma from the Magesterium, The Catechism and the Bible, not you or any leftist American priest. Ahhhhh I feel so much better.

Townsend is the product of Liberal indoctrination. The exposure of this guff in her life greatly outweighed her religious instruction. The libs control the framing of young minds from kindergarten through, to PhD degrees, in public and private schools.

Oh, Townsend, Kennedy-Townsend, Caroline, or whatever?….. I take my Catholic dogma from the Magesterium, The Catechism and the Bible, not you or any leftist American priest. Ahhhhh I feel so much better.

By the way, I don’t recall Jesus saying, “It’s ok to kill little babies so long as you spend a few weekends at Habitat for Humanity.”

Nethicus on July 12, 2009 at 12:58 PM

This is the belief of every liberal Catholic, that it doesn’t matter how one behaves, or what one supports as long as one is a “good person”. They do not even think they need to ask for forgiveness for their sins as they seem to think that their desire for social justice is enough to gain them eternal glory.

The true irony here is that since Martin Luther, Catholics have been accused of believing they earn their way into heaven. True Catholicism does not teach this but then, liberal Catholics know nothing about truth or Catholicism.

One can agree on the dignity of human life and still disagree on issues like incarceration, executions (which, contrary to popular belief, is not proscribed by Catholic doctrine)

If not, the Church is a hair’s breadth away, here in America where people do not customarily break out of “death row”. Both incarceration and capital punishment are covered here. Since capital punishment, not incarceration, is the nit which separates most Catholics, including Ed and myself, it’s best to review the words of the the Catechism themselves:

2267 The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.

If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, given the means at the State’s disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender today are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

The Church’s meaning is obvious — capital punishment is unacceptable except when it is the only way to protect innocents. As is pointed out, once the aggressor is in prison and incapable of further aggression, capital punishment is unnecessary and counter to Church teaching. Such is also the concept behind legitimate defense:

2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another’s life. Preserving the common good requires rendering the unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. To this end, those holding legitimate authority have the right to repel by armed force aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their charge.

While there still is a small percentage of “old school” Catholics, most of what’s left and dying off and what’s become the norm is the “social justice”commie Catholics that hug their baby killing DEM buddies.

Townsend doesn’t even attempt an original thought, much less a persuasive argument for herself, nor does she have to in order to get published. Her sole claim to fame is that she is a Kennedy. That is all she brings to the table. That is all her adherents need to flock to her.

Exactly. I don’t understand how the Catholic Church can support ‘redistribution of wealth’ when clearly one of the main commandments is ‘THOU SHALT NOT STEAL’. Basically, ‘social justice’ or ‘redistribution of wealth’ is STEALING from rich people to give it to poor people. . . or a SIN.

And what I don’t understand too is why money (other people’s money) is so important to the Church. I’ve known some pretty miserable rich people, and I’ve known poor people who were so happy that they didn’t know they were poor.

Somehow we are to believe that Catholics are taking a moral high ground to STEAL money from one group to give to another group. . . as though that has anything at all to do with salvation.

Kathleen who? No worries. The media in general will be remembered for falling all over themselves over who is fast becoming the most foolish man ever to occupy the White House. One can only hope that when he falls, (and he’s going to fall) he hasn’t taken the whole country down with him.

Perhaps not. I wonder how many Catholics have left the church do (sic) to it’s (sic) decided “left turn” starting almost 50 years ago.

Jeff from WI on July 12, 2009 at 1:57 PM

Due, Jeff, due.

From age to age You gather a people to Yourself, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of Your name…

You chose to leave, Jeff, but some of us chose otherwise — to stay with a Church which we think endeavors to remain true to the teachings of Jesus, whether these fall to the right or to the left in our fractured American political spectrum. I see 40 new adult Catholics baptised every Easter at our 11AM Mass — and about another 20 who are confirmed but not baptised (because the Church recognizes all Christian baptisms as valid). The numbers in the Church seem to be more than holding their own in this section of town.

As a condition of my staying, I try mightily to listen to the homily, to read the Bible, the Catechism, and any other theological works which can illuminate the will of God.

What Kennedy Townsend did was not a shift to the left — it is total stupidity, whereby she takes Caesar to be the God of her own personal subset of the Body. To attach that stupidity to the rest of us is disingenuous of you.